Cited by 2,483Evolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorEvolutionary Game Theory and CooperationChild and Animal Learning Development

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Putting the Altruism Back into Altruism: The Evolution of Empathy

de Waal, Frans B.M.·2008·Annual Review of Psychology

DOI 10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093625

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Abstract

Evolutionary theory postulates that altruistic behavior evolved for the return-benefits it bears the performer. For return-benefits to play a motivational role, however, they need to be experienced by the organism. Motivational analyses should restrict themselves, therefore, to the altruistic impulse and its knowable consequences. Empathy is an ideal candidate mechanism to underlie so-called directed altruism, i.e., altruism in response to anothers's pain, need, or distress. Evidence is accumulating that this mechanism is phylogenetically ancient, probably as old as mammals and birds. Perception of the emotional state of another automatically activates shared representations causing a matching emotional state in the observer. With increasing cognition, state-matching evolved into more complex forms, including concern for the other and perspective-taking. Empathy-induced altruism derives its strength from the emotional stake it offers the self in the other's welfare. The dynamics of the empathy mechanism agree with predictions from kin selection and reciprocal altruism theory.

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“More affective processes focus on feeling the emotions of the other person (e.g., emotion contagion, personal distress, experience sharing; Preston & de Waal, 2002) and concern for the welfare of the sufferer (e.g., empathic concern, compassion; Batson et al., 2007).”
Empathy-Related Ratings to Still Images of Human and Nonhuman Animal Groups in Negative Contexts Graded for Phylogenetic Similarity
Westbury, H. R., Neumann, D. L., & Waters, A. M. (2015) · Anthrozoös · doi:10.2752/089279315x14129350722136 · Cited by 20
Wartime Violence, Empathy, and Intergroup Altruism: Evidence from the Ivoirian Refugee Crisis in Liberia
Hartman, A., & Morse, B. S. (2015) · Cited by 20
How evaluation of protective third-party interventions and the relationship context interact at 21 months
Geraci, A. (2019) · European Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17405629.2019.1680360 · Cited by 19
Mindfulness and Empathy: Mediating Factors and Gender Differences in a Spanish Sample
Anuncibay, R. D. L. F., Barbadillo, Á. G., Sánchez, D. O., & Pizarro-Ruiz, J. P. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01915 · Cited by 23
“Empathy refers to the ability to be affected by and share the emotional state of another, to evaluate the reasons for the other’s state and to identify with the other, adopting their perspective (De Waal, 2008).”
Background
Early evidence for emotional play contagion in juvenile ravens
Wenig, K., Boucherie, P. H., & Bugnyar, T. (2021) · Animal Cognition · doi:10.1007/s10071-020-01466-0 · Cited by 21
“Empathy is the ability to be affected by, share and understand other’s emotional states and perspectives (de Waal 2008).”
Background
Do Bad People Deserve Empathy? Selective Empathy Based on Targets’ Moral Characteristics
Wang, Y., Harris, P. L., Pei, M., & Su, Y. (2022) · Affective Science · doi:10.1007/s42761-022-00165-y · Cited by 34
“Given the positive role of empathy in prosocial behaviors (de Waal, 2008; Eisenberg, 2000; Hoffman, 2001), selective empathy may be the emotional precursor of selective helping and third-party punishment.”
Background
Neural Correlates of Dynamically Evolving Interpersonal Ties Predict Prosocial Behavior
Fahrenfort, J. J., van Winden, F. A. A. M., Pelloux, B., Stallen, M., & Ridderinkhof, K. R. (2012) · Frontiers in Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnins.2012.00028 · Cited by 20
The Ecology and Evolution of Social Behavior and Cognition in Primates
Boesch, C. (2012) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199738182.013.0026 · Cited by 21
Gender-empathic Constructions, Empathy, and Support for Compromise in Intractable Conflict
David, Y., Rosler, N., & Maoz, I. (2017) · Journal of Conflict Resolution · doi:10.1177/0022002717701818 · Cited by 20
Love flows downstream: mothers’ and children’s neural representation similarity in perceiving distress of self and family
Lee, T., Qu, Y., & Telzer, E. H. (2017) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsx125 · Cited by 23
Different roads to empathy: stage actors and judges as polar cases
Blix, S. B. (2019) · Emotions and Society · doi:10.1332/263168919x15653390808962 · Cited by 24
“There is a vast literature on empathy and a multitude of definitions (for reviews see Singer, 2006; de Waal, 2008; Cuff et al, 2016), but there seems to be an agreement on the three components involved: emotional attuning, perspective taking and emotion management (Decety and Jackson, 2006).”
Background
Play like me: Similarity in playfulness promotes social play
Lampe, J. F., Ruchti, S., Burman, O., Würbel, H., & Melotti, L. (2019) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0224282 · Cited by 20
The Social Mentalities Scale: A new measure for assessing the interpersonal motivations underlying social relationships
Brasini, M., Tanzilli, A., Pistella, J., Gentile, D., Marco, I. D., Mancini, F., Lingiardi, V., & Baiocco, R. (2020) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.110236 · Cited by 23
“…the conditions for large-scale social interactions, non-kin, and unconditional prosociality (Bowles & Gintis, 2011; Brosnan & de Waal, 2002; de Waal, 2008, 2009; Henrich & Henrich, 2006), as well as for shared intentionality and cultural evolution (Boyd & Richerson, 2005; Cortina, 2017;…”
Background
Social contagion of affiliation in female macaques
Ostner, J., Wilken, J., & Schülke, O. (2021) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.201538 · Cited by 20
Empathy and morality in behaviour readers
Monsó, S. (2015) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-015-9495-x · Cited by 20
A wild Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin adopts a socially and genetically distant neonate
Sakai, M., Kita, Y. F., Kogi, K., Shinohara, M., Morisaka, T., Shiina, T., & Inoue‐Murayama, M. (2016) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/srep23902 · Cited by 20
An Empathic Virtual Buddy for Social Support
van der Zwaan, J. M. (2014) · Research Repository (Delft University of Technology) · doi:10.4233/uuid:f32371b2-82cc-414e-9569-2d56b12a530a · Cited by 50
Measuring Positive Emotions: an Examination of the Reliability and Structural Validity of Scores on the Seven Dispositional Positive Emotions Scales
Dixson, D. D., Anderson, C. L., & Keltner, D. J. (2018) · Journal of Well-Being Assessment · doi:10.1007/s41543-019-00015-y · Cited by 21
Evaluation of nursing students’ perceptions of their cultural care competency: A mixed method study in Taiwan
Liang, H., Wu, K., Hung, C., Wang, Y., & Chen, Y. (2019) · Nurse Education in Practice · doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2019.102639 · Cited by 19
Shaping film: A quantitative formal analysis of contemporary empathy-eliciting Hollywood cinema.
Lankhuizen, T., Bálint, K., Savardi, M., Konijn, E., Bartsch, A., & Benini, S. (2020) · Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts · doi:10.1037/aca0000356 · Cited by 18
Historiography of empathy: Contributions to social work research and practice
Watson, T., Hodgson, D., Watts, L., & Waters, R. (2021) · Qualitative Social Work · doi:10.1177/14733250211033012 · Cited by 19
“It is thought that evolution has shaped human brains to be susceptible to feeling the distress of others (Decety, 2010; de Waal, 2008), particularly the ability to understand distress in offspring which is considered critical to their survival (Decety, 2010).”
Background
Challenging the clinically-situated emotion-deficient version of empathy within medicine and medical education research
Michalec, B., & Hafferty, F. W. (2021) · Social Theory & Health · doi:10.1057/s41285-021-00174-0 · Cited by 20
“Given the extensive detail, encompassing conceptualization, theoretical development, and practical evidence, we strongly encourage the utilization of de Waal’s Russian Doll Model of empathy (de Waal 2008, 2012; de Waal and Preston 2017).”
BackgroundMethod
Emotional Reactivity, Emotion Regulation, and Social Emotions in Affective Disorders
Förster, K., Kurtz, M., Konrad, A. C., & Kanske, P. (2022) · Zeitschrift für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie · doi:10.1026/1616-3443/a000648 · Cited by 23
Attachment Insecurity and Altruistic Behavior among Chinese Adolescents: Mediating Effect of Different Dimensions of Empathy
Pan, Y., Liang, S., & Shek, D. T. L. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph191610371 · Cited by 22
“, empathic concerns) tended to be positively related to prosocial behavior [19,30], and sympathy is regarded as the intrinsic motivation of altruistic behaviors [31].”
Background

Authors: de Waal, F. B. M.
Affiliations: Living Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and Psychology Department, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322;
Venue: Annual Review of Psychology
Publisher: Annual Reviews
Published: 2008-01-01
Volume: 59
Issue: 1
Pages: 279-300
ISSN: 0066-4308 (ISSN-L)
1545-2085
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093625
OpenAlex: W2134084792
Cited by: 2,483
References: 183
Citations by year: 2026: 131 · 2025: 138 · 2024: 165 · 2023: 144 · 2022: 176 · 2021: 191 · 2020: 139 · 2019: 216 · 2018: 177 · 2017: 165 · 2016: 130 · 2015: 154 · 2014: 127 · 2013: 103 · 2012: 87
FWCI: 8.18
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Annual Review of Psychology (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
Keywords: empathy, altruism, evolution of empathy, perspective taking, kin selection, reciprocal altruism, emotional contagion, evolutionary psychology of emotion
MeSH terms: Affect, Altruism, Cooperative Behavior, Empathy, Biological Evolution, Humans, Social Behavior, Intention

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Putting the Altruism Back into Altruism: The Evolution of Empathy

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